Prior report

I was planning on hitting Marion and Sarah over the weekend.

Since all my buddies opted out on Saturday, because it was toooooo cold , I decided to hit Prior Lake on my own.

So, with Auger, shack, heater, Aquaview, flasher, & bait………off I went.

I drove out to the “city” on the north end of Prior at 9am. There is a hole out there that the majority of people set up on.

At the first spot, took the flasher to check depth before drilling and marked my first fish at 17 fow over 20 fow.

I drilled my first hole over that spot, dropped the camera, and LOW AND BEHOLD!!!!!!! I dropped on the mother load of adult bluegills!!! There were about 500 of them, hanging out in 20 fow!!!!

Drilled my holes, set up, turned on the heater……dropped a waxie on an orange spider jig…………and watched the fish just swim by…. ….jigged…. …nothing…. ….twitched…. ….nothing….. …..changed to chartruese spider jig…. …nothing…. …changed to tear drop….. ….nothing…… ……changed to genz worm….. ….nothing….. …..went to a spike….. ….nothing….. …..small swedish pimple….. …..nothing…… ….They all just swam on by, with out a bit of concern with eating!!!!!!!

The good thing, was that the fish were “hanging” around with not much intent on leaving…….

Finally, after an hour of experimenting, I found a horizontal ice jig with a pink/white lead body. This, with a waxie threaded through the head and pushed up tight to the jig head, would catch the fish.

The fish were so negative, that they would suck in the waxie and blow it out in one single motion……If it wasn’t for the camera, I would have had a hard time catching fish. The float would only jiggle a little bit when you had a bite, they never took the bobber down…..

On Sunday, my father called me and wanted to get in on the action, so in the afternoon we went to the same spot and did it all over again……..with only that jig catching 90% of the fish…….

We kept 10 on Sunday and 10 on Saturday for a nice meal.

Of the 30 fish caught each day, I would say that 20 were in the solid 7″ to 8″ class. Not too many little guys!!!

On Saturday, I did have a few nice pike come around in that depth chasing the sunnies. I dropped a sucker/jig down there, but they too were just lookers……….No takers……

All in all, it wasn’t too bad of a weekend for having high pressure. The fish were without doubt in a negative mood, but with a little coaching and finding the right presentation, they would bite!!!

Good Job getting those fish to bite! I think most of the usual weekend warriors would have given up on them. Toughing it out and figuring what they want makes it a much better day.

Thanks for the report Gary. The bite gets tougher after the first ice period is over but as you proved if a guy keeps changing the presentation [in this case the jigs and color] that sooner or later he will catch fish.
Thanks, Bill

Don’t give up yet!!!

The key factor here was having the camera……It was all about watching the bite!!!

If it wasn’t for the camera…..it would have been a report of: “slow bite, no fish, just some light biters………fishing sucks……….blame it on late ice………”

It is baffling when a “bluegill won’t bite” basic ice jigs!!!

What amazed me most was the quality of the fish for a metro lake with this much pressure!!!

My opinion is if you are a metro fisher, don’t get a flasher/graph……..get a camera. The vast majority of metro waters are basically clear in the winter to use cameras.

1) It works for light biting fish, such as this past weekends sunnies.

2) You can find your weed line and “better” weed beds for pike fishing.

3) You can find that transition point of weed/sand…..sand/gravel…….gravel/boulder areas for your walleyes.

4) It is a great tool to use to learn how to properly jig these finicky fish. These sunnies only wanted the jig/waxie to vigrate to get their attention…….then when they came in for the hit……..the jig had to be perfectly still in order to get them to bite.

5) Lastly, if you want the gas of a life time…….try jiggin pike with a sucker or shinner on camera…….It is an absolute blast to vertical jig and have a 10lb pike slam your bait, 6fow below the ice………..

The sunnies have been very picky on Prior. We were fishing one of the bays and you had to sight fish. The water is very clear out there this winter. As for jigs you have to have to right one or they won’t bite. I was sitting right next to my buddy in the portable and I was catching all the fish. He was too stubborn to put on the same jig. He could see the fish swim right past his jig to mine. Finally he put on the same jig and caught some fish.

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Finally, after an hour of experimenting, I found a horizontal ice jig with a pink/white lead body

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So do you guys think it was the color that is making the difference or the horizontal presentation? You hear a lot of talk about the importance of a horizontal presentation when the bite slows mid-winter and I was wondering if you guys thought this is the part of the presentation that made the difference?

Not that I am a pro but I do put some nice gills in the freezer. I would say yes to the horizontal jig working better at times. I like to add a plastic tail over the hook and then add my waxie when the bite is tough. This is what worked for me last week. To see a pic of the fish check the Stoddard WI ice report.

James;

Ya know when you catch a fish on a “horizontal” jig, and your not “shifts up” on the eye……..well, if you didn’t put the knot right, where the jig was horizontal, you didn’t get bit………

I don’t know the name of this jig and I’m trying to find a pic of it to post……..But with the same jig type, I ran an all white, with a few black dots, and a purple with white dots……..no fish…………This jig is just like a tube jig, but flat on the bottom, making it flutter and swim a bit when jigged……..

It was the only jig that caught 90% of the fish. The reason it didn’t catch the other 10% was due to missing light biters, stealing the waxie, then having the same fish go and hit your other jig (which by the way was only 2′ apart. I was fishing out of two holes………2 feet apart……….and they would only hit one jig.

The other crazy thing about this, is that I would have a school of 10 or 15 fish swim right through. Of those fish, MAYBE one would hit………..tons of lookers and sniffers, but not many hitters……..I even had fish swim right between my two jigs…….

Gary;

If I am reading your question correcly – Have you ever tried using the small fly snaps? It will add action to any jig and your knot stays in place. It also helps cut down time changing up.

I have no clue what a “fly snap” is. Ya got a pic???

I have the name wrong. Like I said “not a pro”. They are in the fly section of most sport shops. Hope this pic helps.

Ah-HA!!!!!!!!

I know what you are talking about. It would have probably been nice, but for as finicky as they were, I probably would have been detered from using them. do you ever think they “turn the fish off” at times???

I must have switched jigs 20 times in the first hour. It was nice having the camera and having the fish hang out right below me………..Change jig, drop jig, twitch jig, pull up jig, change jig, drop jig, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc,……..If it wasn’t for the camera to watch the “mood” of the fish, I’m sure I would have gone home early………..But once I found the “magic” jig, then it was more of a livable challenge I couldn’t back down from…..

For how small these things are I have not had that problem.
They also come in a bronze and black color. The only problem I have with these 2, they break after many changes. The spring steel seems to hold in there.

I do know what you are saying. When they are hanging around it is just like they are teasing you. It is great when you are able to pay them back.

Great info Gary. Too many people just drill a hole and sit back and watch the bobber, never changing or moving. Its just like fishing in the summer, the more effort you are willing to put in, the bigger the rewards.

Pink has been a good color on the north side of town also in the last few weeks. What I have been using out on south center has been a vertical ice jig. Pink glitter on front. Silver on the back.
Switching back and forth from horizontal to vertical jigs is something I try also. So far it has not seem to make any differance. It just seems like you keep switching jigs until you find one they like. Some days its horizontal. Some days it vertical.
Im sure you have seen with the camera when the pan fish hit just about everything on the jig except the hook or meat. They will hit the side of the jig. The knot. The line. The camera. But dont want anything to do with the meat. Just seems like they are sampling. Heck what else can they do. They have no hands to check things out. I have also seen those days that they are sucking and spitting the lures so fast that if you didnt have the camera you would never know some thing was going on down there. Even then its a challenge to set the hook fast anough to hook them. Very interisting to watch on the camera.
The camera has even led me to find on a couple of trips that the fish would even come up and quickly sample a lure with no biat on it. Same thing as described earlyer. They would take it in and spit it out in the same motion. If you where fast anough you had a fish on. Fishing ice jigs with out bait is not something I try on a regular basis but it has proven its self on a couple of trips for me. Go figure.

Bret, I fish with an older fella that uses those snaps consistantly. AND more times than not…out fishes me.

He uses them on his raps/crank baits in the summer and on all of his ice gear…he has a hard time seeing to tie the knot.

I’ve used them for fly fishing but, they seem to give the fly a un natural action…so until I can’t see to tie the knot I don’t use them.

For ice fishing…the rule of thumb is use as little terminal tackle as possable. But the snaps do make your hook “swing” better.

PS as I was telling Mike W yesterday…I would rather be photographed in the bathtub than to use a “pink” lure….

Brian, Don’t think of it as pink…….. Think of it as Salmon color.

chappy- been to the tressle?
I use a swivel on my main line (i like to use fireline). I got some quick change clips from GM. I tie up 6-8 fluro leaders about 2’long with a jig on one end and a clip on the other. I store them on a leader keeper. I can change colors/jigs quickly. When I try to tie a jig on in the house the darn “eye” keeps winking.

The big bluegill bite is still going on on the north end. Look for water in the 20 to 22 foot range.

Waxies and pink are the hot ticket. A buddy of mine put up a shack on the north end and is doing very well. I’ll get up there Sunday if anyone wants to join me, the door is open!!!

Gary, Must be fun pulling gills out of the deeper water. Bet they zoom around in circles under the ice. Might have to get down there sometime. Good luck.

If want to join in on the fun, come down Sunday!!!

Gary, How’d they bite sunday? Went to red wing, couldn’t resist all the great reports. Going to Prior Tuesday afternoon to look for some big sunnies for the first time. Might have to look for some pink jigs before I go.

The bite is tough out there right now……There are a TON of houses that popped up in the past week. They are there, but the bite is tough……..Too much noise and traffic out there.

Thanks for the reply Gary!

Fished upper prior from 1-6 pm yesterday. Caught 8 -eight inch sunnies with another dozen or so that were smaller. Gary is right most areas in the 20-24 foot range held fish. It would have been nice to see if there were bigger ones down there. I had success with a black ratso with waxie. I would start jigging in 15 feet and move the bait up above the all fish that started coming up. After jigging a bit one fish would come up to the bait faster and usually grab the bait aggresively. The fish that rose up to the bait slowly usually would not bite. I was amazed at the number of houses out there. There were a lot of houses close together in the bays too. Did not get any crappies to bite. Are they biting more at night? After this week there probably won’t be any snow left on the ice out there. With the sun today the houses are going to start having a lot water around them. It would be fun to find the sunnies out there late ice.

Anyone tip-up fishing out there? I was out all Sunday afternoon, with nothing to show. Hit a nice bar off of Martinson Island, and had some moron in an Audi almost drive my tip-up over. Went to the NE side next, and again nothing. Any reports? Feel free to PM me if you have anything you would like to pass along.